Walker
Evans was Staff Photographer at FORTUNE from 1945 to 1965. There
is an excellent account of the relationship in WALKER EVANS AT FORTUNE,
Wellesley College Museum, 1977/8, by Lesley Baier. She interviewed
Max Gschwind who, aside from his masterly visualisations of science
and structure, was assistant art director. Evans' earliest appearence
was The Communist Party, September 1934, see above. His
celebrated project that became Let Us Now Praise famous
Men, began as a FORTUNE assignment with James Agee who also
had contributed to the magazine. After work on location, Evans
developed on his own layouts. Despite Evans' claims to Cummings. Baier
notes that after 1954, he did work on the layout of some of the portfolios
with Ronald Campbell. Working with different sized photocopies of the
intended images, he tweaked and teased to get the exact reading. It
was widely known that at times Evans would trim his negatives to render
a fait
accompli.

PAUL CUMMINGS: What about 1943 when you joined the Time-Life complex
and then went to Fortune two years later? Did you there have enough
freedom? Or were you given specific assignments?
WALKER EVANS: I had to fight for it. But in a way I accepted that as
a challenge. I had to use my wits there. And I think I did all right.
I think I won in the long run. I was very pleased with that because
that’s a hard place to win from. That’s a deadly place
really, and ghastly. I can’t tell you how horrible that is, that
organization.
PAUL CUMMINGS: In what way?
WALKER EVANS: Well, it’s insidiously corrupt and its values are
a hundred percent the opposite of what any aesthetic or idealistic
mind can ever conceive. But it’s hypocritical; they do not admit
that. And they play in a horribly dishonest and corrupt way this other
game. You know that. The history of “Life” you know, the
psychology of Henry Luce all comes from that. It’s a very one-man
organization.
PAUL CUMMINGS: You did a number of portfolios for them?
WALKER EVANS: Yes, I did indeed. And they were mine too. I conceived
those and executed them.
PAUL CUMMINGS: Did you work on a kind of straight basis or full time
or free lance? Was it a regular job?
WALKER EVANS: Yes, I was hired by the managing editor. And that’s
important. I saw to that so I could go over the head of the arts department.
There was no art director for me. I just ignored them, all of them.
I would go to management with my ideas, never telling the art department
about it. They were furious about that. But that was what saved me.
PAUL CUMMINGS: That must have given you a lot of conflict with the
art department?
WALKER EVANS: Oh, it did! They hated me. My God, Leone (Lionni) could
kill me. But he was a very clever man and knew he shouldn’t fight
with me. He just ignored the whole thing. He knew that I was ignoring
him so he was going to ignore me.
PAUL CUMMINGS: Are there any of those portfolios that stand out to
you as being especially successful or rewarding from your point of
view?
WALKER EVANS: Oh, yes. Sure. I’m very pleased with some of them.
PAUL CUMMINGS: Which ones?
WALKER EVANS: Oh. Well, some of them are not even my photography at
all. I love the two postcard ones; they’re purely mine. You probably
never saw them. Vintage postcards…………………

PAUL
CUMMINGS: But one thing we didn’t really
get into is the portfolios and things that you did for Fortune which
you said you initiated.
WALKER EVANS: Some I would. I was in a good position there to go to
the editors, bring ideas and put them directly up, going beyond and
over the heads of the art director and the art department because I
was hired by the management, not by the art department. And then they
made me an associate editor anyway so I was in a position to write
and have ideas and execute them.
PAUL CUMMINGS: So you did the whole - ?
WALKER EVANS: Yes. By “excuse” I mean I didn’t do
this with every idea. But if I had a good idea and I managed to persuade
the editors to do it then first of all, I would conceive it, photograph
it, write it, edit it, and lay it out and present it done, written
and laid out and photographed. So it gave me a sense that I was doing
something there that was my own.
PAUL CUMMINGS: You just didn’t get fed into the mill?
WALKER EVANS: No. That didn’t go for everything I did. Every
once in a while I would get caught up in that big machinery there.
They would need something and I was there and they were paying me and
I thought I’d do it. I never did anything that I thought was
degrading, but I did things that I didn’t want to do every once
in a while.
PAUL CUMMINGS: You’ve never used – or have you used very
few of those photographs in you exhibitions?
WALKER EVANS: I’ve used quite a lot. And overflow, too. You see,
if I went off on a trip for Fortune I had a wonderful time. I would
make lots and lots of photographs and with their knowledge could have
these things. I didn’t do anything with them to speak of. I certainly
wasn’t allowed to compete with them. But, for example, putting
them in exhibitions was something they rather liked. I’d do that
every once in a while. Or in books. But I didn’t compete. I wouldn’t
say, take a Fortune spread and put it in Look, or anything like that.
I never did that.
PAUL CUMMINGS: I was always curious why you had never gotten involved
in any other kind of photo activities or anything. You know, you never –
WALKER EVANS: I’m not a joiner or an involved man. Instinctively
and temperamentally I don’t do that sort of thing.
PAUL CUMMINGS: Do you think that working for Fortune had an influence
on how you took photographs or how you saw things?
WALKER EVANS: No. I think it sort of kept me alive, kept my hand in.
Really there was a duality there that was a little sad and a little
embarrassing as its worst; and that is that I don’t think they
quite knew how to use me. There was some good will on their part, some
on mine; some ill will, too. But in general I wasn’t very happy.
But I don’t think any artist in this country is very professionally
happy. I consider myself lucky to be able to make a decent living.
But they didn’t really make what I would call really creative
or intelligent use of me. I think they realize it more and more now.
It’s the fault of that kind of system of group journalism and
the group mind. And also Luce’s fundamental direction and ends
were not mine at all.
PAUL CUMMINGS: But yet you stayed there for a long time, didn’t
you?
WALKER EVANS: Yes. Well, you know, it was a kind of civilized place
within its framework. Of course, inside and outside the Luce organization
has its insidious and even sinister side. But it’s such a large
thing for very bright people and you can find places in there that
are habitable.
PAUL CUMMINGS: So it gave you a kind of base.

ROY STRYKER: Well, Walker is a staff member of Fortune, with a very
interesting assignment, which is -- he's called an editor. He goes
out and does special photographic assignments. I don't know how much
he does editing inside of it but he's done -- if look through the old
copies of Fortune you'll see some quite remarkable picture series.
RICHARD DOUD: This is Walker Evans?

ROY STRYKER: Yes. Remarkable series. Still showing the same old competence,
still showing his discerning eye. A series he did on the railroads, on
the locomotives, in which he shot the close-ups of the drive mechanism;
the beautiful sequence he did in on the old buildings -- the continuation
of an early love of his, which was at Saratoga; he went back up and did
some of the material up there. You'll see that Walker Evans is still, in
his way, continuing his 8 x 10 camera perception, if I may use that strange
phrase, of the world about him.

"The
picture is quiet and true. Since I am writing about photography let
me point out that this picture is a better part of the story at hand
than either a drawing or a painting would be. There is a profitable
and well-run cracker firm in a sweaty part of the town, there is
a knot of men talking on the pavement about anything but crackers,
amidst the irrelevant trucks. This is where Mal-o-Mars are cooked
and this is where last week's newspaper meets the gutter too. And
the Strand Hotel becomes famous for flavour. My point is Fortune
photographs should take a long look at a subject, get into it, and
without shouting, tell a lot about it." to R.D. Paine, 23.7.48
(Walker Evans at Work).